College Hill

About College Hill

On August 5,1889, the Wichita Board of Education received a petition from the residents of the College Hill area asking that a lot at the northwest corner of Clifton Avenue and Prospect (First Street) be purchased as a permanent location for a school building. One week later, the Board voted to appropriate $4,000.00 to purchase the ground and $8,000.00 to build and heat a building at the proposed site. In December, $6,280.00 was set aside as the specific amount.

The two-story stone building was completed and accepted on November 30, 1890. The building faced First Street and sat at the extreme west side of the school grounds. It was a two-teacher school and housed grades one through eight. According to Board minutes, a third teacher was added to College Hill at the beginning of the 1894-95 school term.

In October 1912, plans were adopted for a new building at College Hill, and in December of that same year, a contract was set. The architect for the building was F.F. Parsons. Cost for the general contract was $41,050.00; heating, plumbing and sewer totaled $4,739.50; making the total project cost $45,789.50. This new school housed eight grades. The old original building was remodeled to accommodate home economics and woodworking classes for the seventh and eighth grades. The building became an elementary school in the fall of 1921 when the seventh and eighth grades were moved to Roosevelt Intermediate School. At that time, the original building was abandoned, but was not torn down until 1927 when the College Hill PTA requested the grounds be beautified. The building was constructed for a capacity of 350 students. The addition of four portable units increased the capacity to 450.

In 1976, for the third time, a new College Hill School was constructed. The 64-year-old structure was razed to make way for a modern building with a capacity of 600 pupils. Griffith and Bonham, architects, designed and supervised the construction of the building at a cost of approximately $1,350,000. The new school was planned for the completion in August 1977. During the interim year, fifth and sixth grade pupils were housed in portables located on the site, while other grades were located in housed adjacent to the site. These houses were purchased by the Board of Education with the intent of razing them to provide a larger site for College Hill.

At the beginning of the 1988-89 year, sixth grade students were incorporated into the middle school program, leaving a K-5 enrollment of approximately 450 students.

In April 2000, the voters of the Wichita School District approved a $284.5 million bond issue. College Hill received a new addition including two classrooms and student support, as well as improvement of the ramp that exits to the playground. The school district approved a contract with Descon, Inc. for $968,367 to complete the Bond project. The project dedication ceremony was held May 4, 2006.

With the most recent approved bond issue, College Hill Elementary received a new multi-purpose room/FEMA shelter that was completed in the fall of 2013. During the 2013-2014 school year, classes were held at a different site due to a fire on August 12, 2013. In August 2014, we celebrated our homecoming to our own site.